EPISD Citizen Bond Advisory Committee talks about future learning and upcoming projects

The Citizens Bond Advisory Committee met Thursday evening.

The committee is made up of citizens, businesses owners and members of the military.

The El Paso Independent School District set up the advisory committee when the bond was first proposed for checks and balances.

All the members volunteer their time and are dedicated to keep an eye on the districts projects, keeping them on time and on budget.

People with the Jacobs Group did most of the talking at the meeting.

The Jacobs Group is designing and spearheading most of the projects in the bond.

A representative for the company spoke about 21st century learning which encourages students to create, communicate, and collaborate.

The representative showed a video showing a school with open learning environments, movable walls and furniture that were ready for any tech device to be plugged in.

The goal is to encourage a creative environment.

During the meeting, the committee also talked about upcoming projects such as turf replacement at Franklin and Bowie high schools, tennis court replacement at Coronado high school and $6 million that would go to improve playgrounds in all of the elementary schools in the district.

“We already hired architects. Many of the architects we hired are working with specific campuses for specific communities and those specific high schools and elementary schools to start designing the projects,” said Executive Director of Planning Carlos Gallinar.

ABC-7 learned that a lot of the bigger projects are in the design phase but about this time next year some will start seeing cranes and other major construction equipment in neighborhood schools.